Black River TodayA Rutland Herald blog about
the Black River community.

About Black River

Black River Today is blogged by Ralph Pace who lives in Ludlow with his wife of 49 years, Janet, and a dog named Devi. He enjoys gardening (but not lawns-there's a big difference), skiing (when he can drag himself to the slopes), and editing his personal blog (http://viewfromludlow.blogspot.com) along with this blog. He also cohosts a weekly news TV program on LPC-TV, Channel 8, called "That Was The Week That Was" (TW3). Taped segments of TW3 may be viewed at www.lpctv.org. News, stories, comments, opinion columns and any suggestions dealing with the Black River area and his blog can be sent to ralphpace@tds.net

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January 29, 2012

Letter to the Editor-Citizens United Issue

Dear Editor:

All across Vermont, citizens are putting the issue of corporate personhood and money-in-politics on the agenda for Town Meeting on March 6.

In some communities, such as Burlington and Woodstock, the local governing body has adopted a town meeting warning article by request. In another two dozen or more towns, citizens have gathered the necessary signatures to put the question before the town meeting.

On a similar track, the Vermont Legislature is considering a resolution offered by state senator Virginia Lyons of Chittenden County that frames the issue succinctly: “The profits and institutional survival of large corporations are often in direct conflict with the essential needs and rights of human beings.”

The local questions for town meeting address this conflict by inviting voters to endorse the propositions that “corporations are not people” and “money is not speech.”

These propositions might have seemed self-evident until two years ago, when the U.S. Supreme Court decided the case Citizen’s United v. Federal Election Commission. The 5-4 decision reversed several precedents and made it legal for corporations or individuals to spend unlimited amounts of money to influence political campaigns.

The dissent written by Justice John Paul Stevens expressed the same sentiment currently motivating Vermonters: “Corporations have no conscience, no beliefs, no feelings, no thoughts, no desires. Corporations help structure and facilitate the activities of human beings, to be sure, and their ‘personhood’ often serves as a useful legal fiction. But they are not themselves members of ‘We the People’ by whom and for whom our Constitution was established.”

Vermonters from Brattleboro to Burlington, from Bennington to Greensboro will have the opportunity at town meeting to vote to agree or disagree with Justice Stevens. National polls show large majorities agreeing with the Justice.